“What do you think that will be?” I asked.
“If they grant us our lives—abject slavery,” he answered, with a groan. “If we could fight first, I should not so much mind; but to be picked up by those rascals without a struggle, as a worm is picked up by a bird, is very trying.”
“But don’t you think we might master one of the prahus, and escape in her?” I asked.
“A brave thought; but one, I am afraid, our captain is not a man to execute,” was his reply. “I am thinking about the poor women. We may one of these days find means of escaping out of the hands of these villains; but they never can.”
“Indeed I can feel for them,” I said, thinking of the fate of my own sister.
“Well, we will try if we can stir the captain up to adopt your plan,” he exclaimed, after a minute’s silence. “We have arms enough, and we will throw ourselves altogether on board the first vessel which comes up. If we take her by surprise, we shall have a greater chance of success.”
“I will back you up,” I said. “I am sure all hands here will join us.”
“Yes, yes,” said the men; “we will fight before we yield.”
And to show that they were in earnest, they set to work to examine the arms we had in the boat. We then hailed Captain Van Deck, and told him what we proposed doing.
“It would be madness,” he answered. “We should not have a chance of success, and we should all be knocked on the head and thrown into the sea together.”